RTK data into Sketchup Pro

Hi Folks - I’m a amateur architect, surveyor, and trained electrical engineer. I recently acquired the RTK Facet and have gotten access to some nearby NTrip casters through Unavco, so now the Facet says it has 11mm localization. I’d like to use the facet to gather topographic information of the terrain around me and then load it into Sketchup so I can design buildings and such.

I’ve struggled so far to figure out how to capture data and get it into a format I can import to Sketchup. Collada (*.dae) format seems the most promising from an import perspective, but tools like SWMaps do not output. Does anyone have suggestions for software that I can use with the rover to generate Collada output files? Seems like I may be just need to write some code to do it, but feels like something that should be able to be pieced together from existing tools.

Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks

Hey juniormint,

I’ve actually had this same idea on my mind this past week, with not enough time to work on it. First thought is that there’s likely a Blender plugin (because there’s a blender plugin for everything). Second thought is GDAL, which I know handles all things GNSS as well as DWG files… Here are some links to dive into, and as I start digging into my own project, I will periodically poke back in with any additional information I find. If you find a good solution before I do, please share!

This blender plugin has support for GPX tracks:

https://github.com/vvoovv/blosm/wiki/Premium-Version

And a link to GDAL:

https://gdal.org/

Thanks for the reply. I’ll look into those links. Meanwhile, I did find a Sketchup plugin that seems to work - but it’s a non-released plugin from Steve Baumgartner (Sketchup Sage). It reads KML files and converts the data inside into a cartesian coordinate system and adds them to you Sketchup project. I still think the format conversion should just be doable with off the shelf tools (at least feels like it) but SB’s plugin unblocked me short term. I’ll try to follow up on the links you sent in future still.

I’m working on my own home and getting into this as well. Hopefully we can work out a good solution. I’m currently looking into Modelur for Sketchup, Parametric Urban Design Software Key Features - Modelur
Did you use SW maps to make the KML file?

TopoShaper extension looks promising as well.